Rapid, Smart Development in Magento: 120 Minute Module

Covered some of the good parts (possibly lesser known) for new users as well as some good tools to use, however, I think the talk could have been a little bit better structured as we ran out of time before what I think is a key development feature (event observers) were covered.

I would recommend for the code portion to do separate commits in a git repo and replay them as part of your tutorial instead of typing it all again during the talk. This can also be a pre-tested way so certain parts won't be forgotten or issues arise during that you have to spend some time debugging.

I would also have the code you used available (via github/whatever) and listed on the slides for participants to go through during the talk.

I have no doubt that Ben knows what he's talking about and it's clear he has quite some teaching experience, but for a Magento newbie it was probably just too much information in a single morning session. Perhaps Ben can 'trim the edges' to make it a better fit or perhaps turn it into a full day tutorial.

It gave me, as an experienced Magento developer, an even better insight on the internals of Magento. However as said by others we did run short and we had probably gone through too much theory for it to stick. Perhaps start with more practical examples and apply the theory while teaching it.

That being said; explaining Magento to people new to the Magento scene in 3 hours is no easy task.

You mentioned you wanted to do some pair programming in the next talk, great idea! Would love to see that happen!